JAZZ / BLUES REVIEWS : Bryant Brings Her Magic to South County

Good singers are said to be “transporting,” able to fire up the imaginations of their listeners and create a picture of a song’s lyrical scenario. In other words, their singing has magical properties. Pianist-vocalist Betty Bryant practiced that magic Saturday during her trio’s first set at the San Juan Capistrano Regional Library Auditorium.

There were moments when her engaging voice and smart keyboard accompaniment turned the library’s spacious, chapel-like la sala auditorium into an intimate piano bar of the sort found in New York’s Algonquin or Carlyle hotels. At other times, with Bryant crying the blues or pounding out some boogie-woogie lines, the sala took on the atmosphere of a Kansas City honky-tonk. And once, with Bryant singing Ivan Lins’ samba-paced “Me Deixa Empaiz” in Portuguese, the feel was definitely right out of Rio.

There’s no secret, no wires and mirrors explanation, as to how Bryant created these time-and-space illusions. She sings a song like she means it, without an over-reliance in stylistic tricks or vocal gimmicks. Her well-pitched voice, though generally graced with light, even girlish resonance, can also be assertive when called for, or as seductive as they come. Still, its most valuable characteristic is its warmth and overt friendliness; even the most heartfelt ballad was sung with a smile.

Then there is her piano playing. Bryant ranks with Shirley Horn as one of the few vocalist-pianists who do both convincingly. Though at times she recalled Horn’s spare, yet emotive keyboard style, Bryant usually took a richer, more chord-filled approach and decorated it with rolling lines and an occasional trill, the kind of thing her friend from her Kansas City days, Jay McShann, might admire. And there were occasional impressionistic, even classically influenced moments such as her unaccompanied opening to “Autumn Leaves,” which was as delicate as an early frost.

With longtime bassist Greg Eicher and drummer Washington Rucker, Bryant opened with a varied-paced “I Got Rhythm” that saw her toying with the tune’s indulgent tempo before scatting in unison with her own right hand at the piano. She offered to “add a little bounce” to the Sammy Cahn-Jule Styne ballad “Time After Time,” before digging into the number with swinging accents and growls away from the mike. “I Just Can’t See for Lookin’,” an obscure tune done by Nat Cole early in his career, was given a barrel-house treatment by the pianist.

Bryant worked unaccompanied on the Broadway ballad “Lilac Wine,” her voice recalling some of the coquettishness of Eartha Kitt without overdoing the vamp. Her original “Don’t Fall in Love With Me” was a swinging, good-natured warning that featured instrumental exchanges among the threesome. Another Bryant composition, “Come and Laugh With Me,” underscored the singer’s good-natured ways with the audience.

Bryant’s rhythm section created magic on its own. Working without the drummer, Eicher opened “No Moon at All” with firm, melodic, bowed passage before moving into a solid walk. The bassist avoided flashy shows of technique during the set, instead sticking to a strong, deliberate attack that added much to Bryant’s keyboard work. Rucker, besides on-the-money timekeeping, provided color from his cymbals and the rim of his drums, echoing the rhythmic variations that Bryant would bring to a lyric. His brush work on “Don’t Fall in Love With Me” was especially light and lively.